FOR IMPACT Afternoon Session: JUST ASK! Share the Story – Present the Opportunity

Hosted by the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits and Tom Suddes of the Suddes Group

Date: November 29, 2011 Time: 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Location: Phoenix Catholic Diocese, 400 E. Monroe, Phoenix, AZ 85004

Just Ask! Just Ask! Just Ask! Get a VISIT… With a Qualified Prospect…to Share the Story…to Present the Opportunity…Shoulder-to-Shoulder…to Fund the Vision. Tom will present strategies on how to structure the visits and provide tools and techniques to give you the confidence you need to “Just Ask!!! You will learn how to create great Engagement Tools that can facilitate terrific dialogue, communicate stats & stories, foster engagement and interaction and GRAB PEOPLE’S ATTENTION!

Normally, I am significantly uplifted after leaving a Tom Suddes workshop. This one felt a little flat to me. Maybe because 1) He was tired after jumping on top of the podium during the first half of the workshop (wish I'd seen that. He didn't do that the first time I saw him) or 2) It was an all-day workshop and even though I'd already attended the first one over a year ago, I felt like I should've gone because I felt as though I missed some info. Which I did.

But I always leave with some words of wisdom and Tom never fails to drop some good ones:

• Find like-kind people who believe in your mission to serve on your board.
• ROI - about logic and magic, stats and stories, math and people.
• Selling is not telling unless it's a story.
• Presentation design - who goes with you on the visit? Predisposition hands-on or visual.
• The goal is to get the commensurate gift to campaign. 
• When presenting it should be in the format of You/Them/Us: You: 2 bullet points and the 3rd bullet is relationship to organization. Them: ask questions about them. Us: reason for visit (Ask "Do you know about we do?").
• In regards to qualified prospects: Identify, Prioritize, Strategize. Identify (low hanging fruit, referrals, ideal profiles, magic formula, target sectors, Women Rule! Prioritize (master prospect list)
• Champion - for your organization
• Invite - others to get engaged
• Invest - should make commensurate gift

Something to think about: Before the second session started, I had lunch at the location and sat with two ladies. They asked the typical get-to-know-you questions and when I told them what I wanted to do, one of the ladies said, "Oooh. You could be like one of those mobile libraries. But for creative writing. You could get yourself one of those camper-type things and just park on school grounds and have the school put out a sign or something to let them know you're there." Huh.

Starting a Nonprofit Webinar Series, Session II: Form the Corp

Patrick McWhortor, President & CEO of the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits will offer unique insights and advice from someone who started two nonprofits in recent years and has experience in leadership of several local and national nonprofits.  The four-part webinar series will cover:


• Basic nonprofit organizational and legal concepts
• Steps in planning the formation of a nonprofit
• Alternative approaches to serving your mission
• Resources for starting and supporting a nonprofit
• Basic practices for building a board of directors
• Practical advice and tips for nonprofit start-ups

Webinar took place on Oct 20th, 2011
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Listened to recording today

In Session 2 of our Starting a Nonprofit Webinar Series, you will learn the 6 Steps to the formation of your nonprofit and meeting legal requirements.
 
My Takeaways:

Step 1 - Evaluate the Decision

Why?

1. Mission
2. Need - reinforcing assets in the community
3. Innovation
4. Passioni

Why Not?

1. Why not for profit?
2. Nonprofit market analysis - competition
3. Collaboration - look for a home first/Incubation (Member Match)
4. Incubation Option
5. Fiscal sponsorship?

When?

• Ecomonic climate
• Political climate
• Nonprofit climate

~ Find Expertise:

• Business planning
• IRS
• Professionals: attorney and accountant

~ Nonprofit capacity building:

• www.asu.edu/copp/nonprofit
• http://www.oneaz.org/
• http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/

Step 2 - Planning

Business Plan

• Financial model
• Resource development plan
• Marketing plan
• Pilot Phase
• Incubation

Where does the money come from?

• Donations
• Government
• Earned income

~ Infrastucture

• Restricted funds
• Investment capital vs operationg
• Administrative/fundraising costs
• Accountability

~ Board Development

• Role of Board
• Founders
• Incorporating board

~ Stakeholders

• Community support
• Volunteers

Step 3 - Incorporation

• Legal formation
• Corp name research
• Corporation Commission - Articles of Incorp, Bylaws, etc.
• Secretary of State - solicitatation registration
• IRS tax exemption: Form 1023 application

~ Fundraising

• Solicitation
• Registration

Starting a Nonprofit: What You Need to Know, Session I

Patrick McWhortor, President & CEO of the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits will offer unique insights and advice from someone who started two nonprofits in recent years and has experience in leadership of several local and national nonprofits.  The four-part webinar series will cover:


• Basic nonprofit organizational and legal concepts
• Steps in planning the formation of a nonprofit
• Alternative approaches to serving your mission
• Resources for starting and supporting a nonprofit
• Basic practices for building a board of directors
• Practical advice and tips for nonprofit start-ups

Webinar took place on Sept 22, 2011
Listened to recording today

In Session 1 of our Starting  a Nonprofit Webinar Series, you will learn the basics about nonprofits, their unique characteristics and whether you should form a new organization.

My TakeAways:

Steps to opening a nonprofit - 
~ Evaluate
~ Plan
~ Form the Corp
~ Comply
~ Operate
~ Sustain

Some statistics - 
~ Nonprofits employ 10% of the nation's workforce (13 million workers)
~ Nonprofits in AZ employ 9% of the workforce - below National Average
~ Nonprofits represent 1.3 billion in annual purchasing power in the U.S.
~ Nonprofit expenditures account for nearly 9% of the National Income
~ Nonprofit sector is the 3rd largest contributor the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product), after retail and wholesale trade

Info about AZ Nonprofits -
~ There are more than 20,000 nonprofits operating in the state of AZ
~ $19 billion impact in AZ
~ More than 120,000 paid employees
~ Paid/unpaid workforce larger than government (including volunteers hrs)
~ 60% of Arizonans volunteer their time
~ 64% of nonprofit revenues are below $250,000

Nonprofit's Six Defining Characteristics -
1) Mission Focus
2) Social ROI - has to benefit society
3) Assessment of program outcomes - how we measure impact
4) Role of Governing Boards - steward of nonprofit organization's mission on behalf of the community
5) Involvement of volunteers
6) Culture

Sources of nonprofit income -
Earned income - 43% (health and education)
Government - 32%
Donated (all sources) - 25%

Income sources by sub-sector - I focused particularly on the arts
Arts - 50% earned; 7% government, 43% donated

Total Giving = about $300 billion
Individual giving is about $229 (74%)


Sources and Uses of Charitable Donations -
Arts/culture - $14 billion (5%)
Religion gets the most at $102 billion (32%)

Where AZ Foundation Dollars Are Going -
31% - education at $54.9M
14% - Social and Human Services at $23.9M
12.6% - allocated to community development at $22.4M

Nonprofit Life Cycle -
~ Core Program Development (Start-up)
Concept - spend a lot of time here
Incorporation
~ Infrastructure
Growth
~ Impact Expansion and Stagnation (dissolving/merging phase)

Building Blocks for a Solid Proposal Budget

Hosted by the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits

Date: August 18, 2011
Time: 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location: Catholic Diocese of Phoenix
400 E. Monroe, Phoenix, AZ  85004

Worthy grant proposals often don’t make it to the final cut because the proposal budget is poorly put together. However, crafting a budget that clearly and accurately reflects all the resources your program needs can help convince prospective funders that your project is worthy of their financial investment. 

Building a strong proposal budget is not a complex or mysterious process!  

In this workshop, you'll learn:

• The principles of mission-driven budgeting.
• How to apply those principles using a real-life scenarios as you build a detailed proposal budget, step by step.
• How to use the Grantseeker’s Power Tool – Master Budget Planning Checklist and Worksheet.
• Explore how grantmakers evaluate budgets and what your budget says about your organization.

My Takeaways:

Again, the learning and experiential objectives for this workshop say it all. This was a tiny refresher course for the Financial Management course I somehow managed to blunder through, but this went in-depth a little bit more.

• Be familiar with the major budget categories and know what is typically included in each
• Know how to calculate dollar values for common budget expense items
• Be familiar with resources for more information on developing federal grant budgets
• Understand and be able to apply the concepts of "direct" and "indirect" costs
• Understand and be able to apply the concepts of "matching" and "in-kind" resources
• Learn additional resources for building program budgets for various kinds of grant requests

To be honest, I never was good at math and though the presenter was very good, I know that I'm going to have to recruit a board member or a volunteer with an extensive financial background. It was still a little confusing, but very informative.

The Logic Behind the Logic Model: Connecting Change with Action

Hosted by the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits

Date: August 18, 2011 Time: 9:00 am to Noon Location: Catholic Diocese of Phoenix
400 E. Monroe, Phoenix, AZ  85004

What is a good idea worth? Why should anyone else care?  What is the Return On Investment?  What has changed?  Funders are now commonly requiring Logic Models as way to answer these questions and determine their ROI in your organization.  The Logic Behind the Logic Model is a fast-paced, resource-rich workshop that offers a simple and powerful way of thinking about, assessing, and communicating the work your organization does in the world. You’ll learn and practice using new tools for crafting clear-cut evaluation plans for your proposals, including:

• The Change Map –  a tool to communicate your organization’s theory of change in to action.
• Program Logic Model – a tool to map your program’s inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and goals.
• How to use the Logic Model process to create powerful outcome statements and evaluation plans funders will love.
• The Logic Model in Action: Samples from a variety of community organizations

My Takeaways:

I'm just going to regurgitate the learning and experiential objectives that were listed for this workshop because basically it's self-explanatory. I recently decided that even though I'm the founder of TWZ and will have to play the role of ED, I would prefer to be a Program Director. Learning about this model will definitely help me in applying this concept for planning a program and may even help me in my Program Planning and Evaluation course.

So, after participating in this workshop, attendees will:

1. Have a solid, flexible working vocabulary of terminology with Change Mapping, Logic Models, and evaluation planning and design.
2. Be able to articulate the Universal Ideal toward which his/her program's work is directed or toward which it contributes.
3. Have basic tools for identifying and articulating the Change Gap--the gap between "what we say we want" and "what we see we have."
4. Understand the importance of maintaining a clear focus on the Universal Ideal while selecting appropriate interventions and strategies for moving toward it.
5. Be prepared to create a Change Map for a specific program or service within her/his organization.
6. Know how the framework of the Logic Model fits into the greater context of the Change Map.
7. Understand the purposes and application of a Logic Model in program planning, evaluation design, and program management.
8. Have hands-on experience in mapping out a basic Logic Model for a real-life situation, and be prepared to apply the same framework to his/her own work situations.
9. Understand and be able to share with others the "logic" behind the Logic Model, and use this understanding to facilitate strong program planning, evaluation design, and program management.
10. Be familiar with a variety of forms or shapes of Logic Models and comfortable working with them.